It has been said that “Spiritual formation is life.”[1] Dutch priest and writer Henry Nouwen also once proclaimed, “[Spiritual Formation] is about the movements from the mind to the heart through prayer in its many forms that reunite us with God, each other, and our truest selves.”[2] Additionally, American theologian Tim Tsohantardis explained, “The beatitudes, then, are nothing but the Lord's answer to that prayer of the human heart to regain its lost happiness. It was as if the Lord said that morning to that crowd and to all of us (I saw your life, I felt your pain, I heard your prayer, and lo and behold, if you want to regain your lost joy, take these keys and unlock the secret of happiness).”[3]
Faith is not just a medal to be worn around one’s neck, but rather a spiritual journey that one yearning to grow closer to God (in healthiness and intimacy) strives to undertake in obedience to Christ’s greatest commandment (Mark 12:30–31). Assuredly, these poignant truths have been affirmed and attested to by numerous authors across the ages, from the writers of the Bible—“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:10–12, NIV) to the sages of church history—“And every spiritual and moral virtue you possess is through divine grace,”[4] and into modernity.
Thus, it is not surprising that a Quaker mystic and educator like Thomas Kelly (1893–1941) endeavored putting to pen and future publication (posthumously) an epistle of devotion to ostensibly help others “learn the disciplines of His Grace.”[5] Afterall, he wrote, “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking voice, to which we may continuously return.”[6] In total, he offered five essays in consideration and implored his readers, “Let us explore together the secret of a deeper devotion, a more subterranean sanctuary of the soul, where the Light Within never fades, but burns, a perpetual Flame, where the wells of living water of divine revelation rise up continuously, day by day and hour by hour, steady and transfiguring.”[7]
In his first essay, “The Light Within,” Kelly discusses the inner life of the soul, beseeching readers to acknowledge and accept the presence of God within them, who desperately and benevolently wants only to reconcile with his beloved creations, providing the ultimate divine source for their reclamation and restoration. Kelly writes, “But, more deeply, He who is within us urges, by secret persuasion, to such an amazing Inward Life with Him, so that, firmly cleaving to Him, we always look out upon all the world through the sheen of the Inward Light, and react toward men spontaneously and joyously from this Inward Center.”[8] He assures his readers that a reorientation toward the inward light is the wisest and most beneficial move that they can make in our brief lives.
In Kelly’s second essay, “Holy Obedience,” he exhorts his readers to seek a deeper, more sincere relationship with God. He writes, “But when such a commitment comes in a human life, God breaks through, miracles are wrought, world-renewing divine forces are released, history changes.”[9] Moreover, “Here is an infinite fountain of lifting power, pressing within us, luring us by dazzling visions, and we can only say, the creative God comes into our souls. An increment of infinity is about us. Holy is imagination, the gateway of Reality into our hearts. The Hound of Heaven is on our track, the God of Love is wooing us to His Holy Life.”[10] Ultimately (according to Kelly), “The wholly obedient life is mastered and unified and simplified and gathered up into the love of God and it lives and walks among men in the perpetual flame of that radiant love. For the simplified man loves God with all his heart and mind and soul and strength and abides trustingly in that love. Then indeed do we love our neighbors”[11]—just like Jesus Christ did in the Gospels.
In Kelly’s third essay, “Blessed Community,” he discusses the bride of Christ—the church—and how our fellowship with like-minded and hearted believers only adds to the joy of our salvation. He explains, “Fellowship searches friendships, burning, dissolving, ennobling, transfiguring them in Heaven’s glowing fire.”[12] After all,
The early days of the Evangelical movement showed the same bondedness in love. The disclosure of God normally brings the disclosure of the Fellowship. We don’t create it deliberately; we find it and we find ourselves increasingly within it as we find ourselves increasingly within Him. It is the holy matrix of "the communion of the saints,” the body of Christ which is His church.[13]
In fellowship through Christ, social divisions are dissolved, destructive burdens are shared, prayers are intertwined, true unity is achieved, and believers become His body and His blood to each other (and for anyone in need). As Kelly puts it, “Holy is the Fellowship, wondrous is the Ministrant, marvelous is the Grail.”[14] Christ’s followers can experience a taste of the loving-accepting-comforting-supportive home that their hearts have always yearned for in this life.
In Kelly’s fourth essay, “The Eternal Now and Social Concern,” he discusses the collision, collusion, and confusion of some regarding which side of eternity matters the most. Kelly notes, “I submit that this is a lamentable reversal of the true order of dependence. Time is no judge of Eternity. It is the Eternal who is the judge and tester of time.”[15] Instead of being at peace, too many believers are anxious about their present and futures. Instead of walking as new creations, believers schlep all their former worldly concerns (really, chains) when they trudge through life, as if they were accoutrements of defense—just in case the God of the universe cannot get the job done, after all.
Instead, Kelly encourages readers, proclaiming, “Instead of anxiety lest our past, our past defects, our long-standing deficiencies blight our well-intentioned future efforts, all our past sense of weakness falls away and we stand erect, in this holy Now, joyous, serene, assured, unafraid. Between the relinquished past and the untrodden future stands this holy Now.” God not only has our back and pasts—He has our fronts, bottoms, and all-overs. We can let go of the old fears and frustrations for “Now is that of unspeakable and exquisite joy, peace, serene release.” God—Emmanuel—is with us now.
Finally, in “The Simplification of Life,” Kelly provides readers with the realities, rationale, and reassurance to prune back the business of our lives, to focus on the one true Person (and priority) who “speaks in us and through us to the world. We have all heard this holy Whisper at times.”[16] Unfortunately, for too many,
Our professional status, our social obligations, our membership in this or that very important organization, put claims upon us. And in frantic fidelity we try to meet at least the necessary minimum of calls upon us. But we’re weary and breathless. And we know and regret that our life is slipping away, with our having tasted so little of the peace and joy and serenity we are persuaded it should yield to a soul of wide caliber. The times for the deeps of the silences of the heart seem so few. And in guilty regret we must postpone till next week that deeper life of unshaken composure in the holy Presence, where we sincerely know our true home is, for this week is much too full.[17]
The cure is simple but costly in the world’s eyes. Kelly remarks, “But if we center down . . . and live in that holy Silence which is dearer than life and take our life program into the silent places of the heart, with complete openness, ready to do, ready to renounce according to His leading, then many of the things we are doing lose their vitality for us.”[18] Therefore, believers need to reconsider and reconnect with the God from truly whom all good things come. They need to exercise their complete and utter joy and delight in Him—“at every hour of the day and night.”[19]
Owen summarizes Thomas Kelly well when he states, “Now I see Kelly as a mystic whose life is one of commitment to the world, not escape from it. And he can be a resource for those of us searching for a worldly engaged spirituality.”[20] Such an appraisal makes great sense as Kelly ends this devotional with the loveliest, most amazing promise of what life can be for God’s children. He writes: “Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power. It is simple. It is serene. It is amazing. It is triumphant. It is radiant. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time. And it makes our life programs new and overcoming.”[21]
Kelly’s Testament of Devotion provides a trustworthy and inspiring path of fulfilling faith for believers struggling in this world. He concludes, “We need not get frantic. He is at the helm. And when our little day is done, we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well.[22] All we need do is embrace His presence in our hearts, submit to His holy and perfect ways, lean into the Spirit of Jesus in each other, remembering that the chaos and cuts of the world have died on the Cross with Christ, who beckons to us to come to Him, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30, NIV).
Bibliography
Chrysostom, John. On Living Simply: The Golden Voice of John Chrysostom. Liguori: Liguori/Triumph, 1996.
Galli, Mark. “A Life Formed in the Spirit.” Christianity Today (September 2008); https://www.christianitytoday.com/2008/09/life-formed-in-spirit/.
Kelly, Thomas. A Testament of Devotion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941.
Owens, L. Roger. “A Mysticism for Our Time.” Friends Journal (September 2017); https://www.friendsjournal.org/thomas-kelly-mysticism/.
Nouwen, Henry. Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit. E-book: HarperCollins, 2010.
Tsohantaridis, Tim. “The Solid Rock: Healthy Spiritual Formation.” Sacroegoism.com (2016/17); https://www.sacroegoism.com/blog/2024/10/20/spiritual-formation.
Endnotes
[1] Mark Galli, “A Life Formed in the Spirit,” Christianity Today (September 2008); https://www.christianitytoday.com/2008/09/life-formed-in-spirit/.
[2] Henry Nouwen, Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit (E-book: HarperCollins, 2010), 11.
[3] Tim Tsohantaridis, “The Solid Rock: Healthy Spiritual Formation,” Sacroegoism.com
(2016/17); https://www.sacroegoism.com/blog/2024/10/20/spiritual-formation.
[4] John Chrysostom, On Living Simply: The Golden Voice of John Chrysostom (Liguori: Liguori/Triumph, 1996), 32.
[5] Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941), 31.
[6] Kelly, A Testament, 29.
[7] Kelly, A Testament, 31.
[8] Kelly, A Testament, 32.
[9] Kelly, A Testament, 52.
[10] Kelly, A Testament, 60.
[11] Kelly, A Testament, 75.
[12] Kelly, A Testament, 78.
[13] Kelly, A Testament, 81.
[14] Kelly, A Testament, 87.
[15] Kelly, A Testament, 91.
[16] Kelly, A Testament, 116.
[17] Kelly, A Testament, 112.
[18] Kelly, A Testament, 118.
[19] Kelly, A Testament, 121.
[20] L. Roger Owens, “A Mysticism for Our Time,” Friends Journal (September 2017);
https://www.friendsjournal.org/thomas-kelly-mysticism/.
[21] Kelly, A Testament, 121.
[22] Kelly, A Testament, 124.